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Johnstown's Olde Knox Mansion
Every old house has its characteristic creaks and groans: the hiss and moan of steam heat, the whine and crack of old wood, the rustle of mice in the walls. But when you’re lying awake in the middle of the night at the Olde Knox Mansion, the things that go bump in the night aren’t so easy to explain away.
The 110-year-old Johnstown home, now run as a museum and bed and breakfast, is rumored to be haunted Posted on October 26, 2008.
The Olde Knox Mansion, which was added to the state and national Registers of Historic Places this year, is full of secrets, and possibly ghosts.
A hidden wall panel in the billiards room may have held the Knox family’s valuables.
Knox Mansion owner Marty Quinn discovered this secret, windowless room, accessible from a crawl space off an attic bedroom. Visitors have reported hearing voices there.
The first floor of the Knox Mansion, including the library, shown here, is open for tours. Halloween is the mansion’s most popular night, with 1,200 to 1,500 people coming through.
The 110-year-old mansion cost $1.2 million to build in the early 1900s, a price that included luxuries like indoor plumbing and a greenhouse.
The music room sports some of the antiques Marty Quinn has used to decorate the mansion, which doubles as a bed and breakfast.
The molded lava fireplace in the billiards room is one of the mansion’s original treasures. Rose Knox reportedly spent $200,000 in the early 1900s for the piece, which came from an Italian castle.
When Quinn bought the Knox Mansion in 1993, it was in serious disrepair, with leaky ceilings, peeling walls and damaged woodwork. Some of Quinn’s restoration work can be seen here, in the main hallway and staircase.
The master suite was originally Charles and Rose Knox’s bedroom. A pellet stove has been inserted in the fireplace.
Marty Quinn shares the Knox Mansion, which he has painstakingly restored over the past 15 years, with overnight guests and, possibly, the occasional ghost.
